The first Christmas I spent with my husband’s family (his mom is Swedish and has Norwegian friends) this dish was part of the festive meal. It was a stinking, repulsive looking gelatinous blob about which one of the quests was downright rapturous. He liked to eat the leftover lutefisk as a sandwich filling on white bread with sliced onions. I thought he was kidding, but later I saw him make that and actually eat it. It was all I could do to control my gag reflex when I succumbed to everyone’s encouragement to ‘try just a little bit’.
It was disgusting.
This quote from Garrison Keillor’s book “Pontoon” says it best:
“Lutefisk is cod that has been dried in a lye solution. It looks like the desiccated cadavers of squirrels run over by trucks, but after it is soaked and reconstituted and the lye is washed out and it’s cooked, it looks more fish-related, though with lutefisk, the window of success is small. It can be tasty, but the statistics aren’t on your side. It is the hereditary delicacy of Swedes and Norwegians who serve it around the holidays, in memory of their ancestors, who ate it because they were poor. Most lutefisk is not edible by normal people. It is reminiscent of the afterbirth of a dog or the world’s largest chunk of phlegm.”
Nope. Won’t be eating that again.
Breathing Space 